Puck Daddy

You know and you love the “Traveling Jagrs.” They’re the group of mullet- and jersey-wearing Jaromir Jagr superfans who travel around North American cheering on their hero.

But with Jagr’s recently trade to the Florida Panthers, the group needs a new member. Enter the Panthers’ promotion department, who have stepped up to help fill the group’s empty spot. Before their game on April 2 against the Carolina Hurricane, the team will be holding tryouts for a “Non-Traveling Jagr” position.

According to the online job description, entrants must “lack of any knowledge of socially acceptable hairstyles,” have a “willingness to take many, many pictures with fellow Travelling Jagr members and fans,” and, of course, have “expert knowledge of the professional hockey career of one Jaromir Jagr.”

Matt Calvert hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to self-diagnosis.

The Columbus Blue Jackets forward, who plans on returning to the lineup against the New Jersey Devils, missed 15 games with a concussion and a neck injury. Calvert claims he didn’t realize he had concussion symptoms until the neck injury was diagnosed around Feb. 27. His coach, Todd Richards, said he wasn’t sure if Calvert was hiding those symptoms from the team in order to remain on the ice.

“But I do know, being a former player, that a lot of times you get hit … you’re a hockey player. You want to play,” Richards told the Columbus Dispatch. “I know for a fact that I had concussions and I played. Back then, it was just getting your bell rung. Times have changed. I don’t think there would be any guys that would do that, based on the knowledge we have today.”

OK, well, it happens all the time, but we’ll take your word for it, ‘Skip.

Andre Deveaux’s contract was terminatedMonday by Swedish side Rogle after video surfaced over the weekend showing him viciously slashing an opponent before a game last week. He, along with the victim of the attack, Per Helmersson, played that night, as well as with Sunday’s final game in their playoff series.

After talk of charges being laid swirled, a warrant has now been issued for Deveaux's arrest after authorities viewed the footage.

The NCAA tournament began this past Friday and ended on Sunday night, whittling the field of 16 down to just four in three days.

In all, it was a tournament that went mostly as expected: There were just four upsets in the 12 games played, and two came as a result of what Providence did to take down the top two teams in its bracket. In a matter of speaking, the tournament has been a little boring to this point, just because picking chalk would have worked out so well for you. And one of the other upsets — Michigan Tech losing to St. Cloud — wasn't really much of one; the NCHC was a much better conference than the WCHA this year.

Jaromir Jagr is doing what Ponce de León couldn’t do over 500 years ago: Locate the Fountain of Youth in Florida.

Seriously, who saw this one coming? Jagr hadn’t scored a point for the New Jersey Devils in the eight games leading up to his trade to the Florida Panthers. His 29 points in 57 games had him on track for his lowest points-per-game in his 1,544-game NHL career.

When the Panthers acquired him, the best case scenario was a boost to the power play and put some extra fannies in the seats for an improbable playoff run. Well, Jagr made a better case: 12 points in 14 games, turning the team’s top line with Jonathan Huberdeau, 21, and Aleksander Barkov, 19, into an offensive juggernaut.

Yes, two players who were years away from entering the world when Jagr was debuting with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two players that, combined, don’t equal Jagr’s 43 years on Earth.

The trio has 13 goals and 38 points in 14 games since the Jagr trade. The line is clicking thanks to Jagr’s leadership and … well, his assets. From the Sun Sentinel:

Since we're down to the final moments of postseason life for teams in contention, Puck Daddy solemnly begins a daily countdown to annihilation.

Like a bad rash, the Flames continue to burn and just won’t go away.

Calgary’s win over the Dallas Stars on Monday night gives them 91 points and an 84.6-percent chance of making the playoffs, now with a three-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings for the No. 3 seed in the Pacific. The win brings them to 38 ROW, while the Kings have 35.

The win also has them keeping pace with the Vancouver Canucks, who also won again to move to 93 points. They have six games left, while the Flames have five.

Also with six games left: The Los Angeles Kings, and one of them is against the Flames in the second-to-last game of the season.

The key to this whole schmoz might be the Winnipeg Jets, who have 90 points with six games left. They don’t have a ROW advantage over the Kings (32). They do play Calgary in the season finale.

The winger scored two goals and added on assist in the Bolts’ 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens, despite the absence of his linemate Tyler Johnson. He played 13:57 and was a plus-3. The Bolts are now 5-0-0 vs. Montreal this season and clinched a playoff spot.

No. 2 Star: Andrej Meszaros, Buffalo Sabres

The defenseman did the Tank no favors, as he scored two goals in the Sabres’ 4-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes in the race to the bottom.

No. 3 Star: Richard Bachman, Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton backstop stopped 29 of 30 shots as the Oilers topped the Colorado Avalanche, 4-1. Brandon Davidson scored his first NHL goal in the win, and the Oilers scored two empty netters. Andrew Miller had three assists.

It’s always a scary scene: an errant, deflected puck flies in the air and into the face of an NHL player. He grabs his head, bends over in panic, and we all worry about the damage done.

Rarely does it end up being a comical situation. But then again, rarely does the player hit by the puck end up wearing it like an eye patch. Arrrrrrrrgh!

Patrik Nemeth of the Dallas Stars was skating back into his own zone Monday night when Calgary Flames forward Jiri Hudler’s dump-in missed its mark and hit Nemeth in the face. In a one-in-a-million freak of hockey physics, the puck became wedged under his visor over his left eye.

It eventually dropped out and Nemeth had a laugh about it, so we can all have a laugh about it too.

Sometimes you see a penalty during an NHL game and you’re positive, in the moment, that the penalty you just saw will result in a major and/or a game misconduct.

In real time, that was the reaction we had to seeing Brett Ritchie of the Dallas Stars go high on Sean Monahan of the Calgary Flames on Monday night.

And yet … it was a minor penalty for high-sticking.

Maybe we have it all wrong. The Dallas Stars intermission analysts seemed to believe so. They said Ritchie was trying to protect himself on the play … by connecting with Monahan’s head with either his forearm or the butt-end of his stick.

Which is nuts. Freeze the video at around 38 seconds: The puck is away, and Ritchie literally has his stick extended towards the head of Monahan.

Maybe the NHL will have a say about this after the game. But this play appeared to cross the line from self-defense, if that's what it was, to predatory.